1. We all write three...but related...poems. And post them below (when we finish them).
2. To produce the second we take our first poem and make it more "modern".
3. To create our third poem we take our second poem and make it (even) more "modern".

Of course the likeliest result is that we find we do not have much of a grasp of what these transitions require. And yet, I suggest that this may well be the fun element...pondering over what could be involved. We would be allowed to critique along the way.

The thought is not merely that we aim for modernity, but we ponder over just what that might involve. If you look up at the top of the page you will see "Contemporary Poetry Forum". Gonna shine a light on that for a wee while. This will not be a standard comp because I want to encourage more joint engagement with the subject, more discussion if you will, or at least more amiable and helpful discussion.

Seth

We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
Richard Wilbur

Will the temptation be to make the last poem more free verse, words scattered around, etc? Is that what many would think of as modern? Not that it is, of course. And the poetry we write now is modern by definition...

...getting into a hole already, and I haven't even started...

Rosencrantz: What are you playing at? Guildenstern: Words. Words. They're all we have to go on.
___________________________Antiphon - www.antiphon.org.uk

Can we distinguish a poem written in 1970 from one written in 2017? That is the question. I'm not sure we can.

Probably not...without a more recent theme or piece of vocabulary. Still, it is part of the point of this thread to ask the question....have there been any stylistic/form changes since then? Certainly the prose poem has come to be a significant form.

Seth

We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
Richard Wilbur

Might it be more interesting (to me, anyway) - and easier - to just write a poem now - modern by definition, as Ros says - and then "age it" backwards? Or is that old hat? Or modern hat. Or post-modern hat. I don't know!

David wrote:Might it be more interesting (to me, anyway) - and easier - to just write a poem now - modern by definition, as Ros says - and then "age it" backwards? Or is that old hat? Or modern hat. Or post-modern hat. I don't know!

I am only wondering.

Fun plan.
Could do.

But though a poem would be "modern" by one definition if it were written now, it need not be so in any sense that has interested people. You could write in the style of Coleridge and age back perhaps. But that would be an odd "modern" starting point. Nor need it engage with anything from the "Innovative"/"Experimental" file. Why don't we engage a little with "modern" in a sense that has some sort of link with that? I think I will have a bit of shuffle through that file and perhaps post some links.

Seth

We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
Richard Wilbur

David wrote:Might it be more interesting (to me, anyway) - and easier - to just write a poem now - modern by definition, as Ros says - and then "age it" backwards? Or is that old hat? Or modern hat. Or post-modern hat. I don't know!

I am only wondering.

If you do that and then swap the order, we wouldn't know you hadn't done it the way that was originally suggested.

Rosencrantz: What are you playing at? Guildenstern: Words. Words. They're all we have to go on.
___________________________Antiphon - www.antiphon.org.uk

‘Tis oft decided on, before solutions fade,
times twenty times away from recovery.
Upon the heath, there once rode a maid
disguised as harlot; undefended, at liberty,
all in garment adventure-full. Seizing tides
within her, she swept the land of gentlemen,
gloriously waved, drowned them, none abides,
full in birthday brief, beyond their nervy ken.

2. Victoria - Victoriahh (no reins)

One searches beyond one’s ready mind
for the steady, solution-charged attack.
A modest, well apportioned lady walked
along the nearest strand with parasol in hand,
glancing, circumspectly only, at the men who
congregated there. She began a twirling dance
never seen in those environs, debilitating
the mens’eyes, wounding all of their defenses.

3. 'Front 'a Hawley Arms - (golden)

‘S’up bro, you all systems go, or bent?
Ain’t so green widdit, but gonna stan’ up.
Chill, you goddid, that an’ a bag ‘a chips.
Wohh – check this out, she’s a dime piece,
smokin’ pedalicious, struttin’ five by five.
Her peeps ‘d scope you a smokin’ firestorm;
ButoJ’s gob fell open down to his blue kicks,
us boyz all systems go, shag 'a shag ‘a silly.

Last edited by RCJames on Mon Jan 29, 2018 6:59 pm, edited 6 times in total.